Thursday 27.6: Snatches, squat/ohs metcon

Thursday. 10 x (hang squat snatch + full squat snatch). Metcon for time. 20 back squats (100kg), 20 OHS (50kg). Cycling to cool down.

Inspired by yesterday's success with hip mobility I decided to change some plans of today's workouts. I was planning to power snatches but was courage enough to trade it to squat snatches. Then a heavy metcon of back squats and overhead squats. Pony and Pauliina joined at the gym. Toni shared the first snatch workout with me.

Squat snatch

Snatches.

• 10 x (hang squat snatch + full squat snatch)
• Weights around 35-40kg

This workout worked perfectly for us. Both Toni and I did this, alternating. No need to rush, working on our technique. Neither of us have done squat snatches. Toni has probably made them with empty barbell, I did my first ones yesterday. We started by having only 30kg on the barbell, then for few rounds kept it at 35kg and the last 5-6 rounds it was 40kg. No need to add weights just for adding weights. This was a new thing for both of us so we wanted to stick to weights we are comfortable with. Having too much weight on the bar would not have worked for its purpose.

The first maybe 3 rounds it was kind of unstable work for both of us. Kind of wiggling and waggling with the bar overhead. With every rep we both felt it got better and it definitely looked better as we were coaching each other. This is new stuff for us so I think I was too cautious to lift the bar vigorously over my head and let it push me towards the ground. That's why the bar didn't land perfectly at each attempt. The weights were anyway light so that I was able to correct those flaws with strength. We should just add strength in the pull so that the bar would come down in upright vertical movement.

This was ideal training for us and boosted a lot of confidence in this movement. Got to have a huge warm-up on my hips and legs in general in order to do this one. Otherwise my hips won't flex enough.

Squat / Overhead squat. Time 7.06

• For time:
• 20 back squats, 100kg
• 20 overhead squats, 50kg

Uuh, tough one. 20 reps each. My strategy with the squats was to finish it in 3 sets and overhead squats in 4 sets. With squats I took 8 reps at first try, then 7 and finally those 5 that were left. God damned I did good squats. Probably because my hips were so mobilized after those squat snatches. They were tough towards the end but manageable. Time after squats was 2.19. My legs were quite destroyed at this point and I had 20 reps left. Had to shake my legs each time I racked the bar with back squats or dropped the bar at OHS.

With overhead squats I wanted to make it in 4 sets. At first I did 6 reps, then 5. Had 9 left and my shoulders were shaking. Another set of 5 reps to make it 16 total reps. Last set, 4 reps: 3 left, 2 left, 1 left and my shoulders failed me, leaned forward and dropped the bar, damn! That was unreal. Only one simple rep left to do and I had to let it go. I want to believe it was more like a technical mistake of not concentrating enough and thus I didn't do enough work with my shoulders.

Eeach time I dropped the bar, I cleaned it up, placed it on the rack, put it on my back, jerked it up and started moving. I lost some valuable time on the last miss so it finally went over 7 mins. Had to re-collect my strength after each set, no matter was it back or overhead squat. Had I taken another set immediately after racking or dropping the bar, I don't think I could have made as long sets as today.

I still left with a goof feeling from the training. The first one was good technical progression and the latter one was a good battle of strength and metabolic conditioning. Afterwards 6min cycling to cool down, decreasing tempo gradually. Some mobility / stretching in the end.

Toni's workouts.

• Same snatch combo as I did
• Power cleans, 5x5 (all sets 60kg)
• 5 rounds of: 20 sit-ups and 20 double unders. Time 6.23

He performed good with the snatches, no doubt about it. We both realized some clear development points in our action but overall, he did good. He took a metcon in the end with 2 basic movements, sit-ups and DU's. Would you believe it, he counted the double under reps correctly! Usually this guy does about 85% of the reps he's supposed to do. It's just too difficult to do the math. Well, I was giving him props for counting right. The answer was he intentionally counted to 23 reps to have it right =D